Nissan to increase sales needs not only more powertrains, but also more cab/box configurations to broaden the appeal of the new Titan.
Nissan Americas said today that its next generation of its full-size Titan pickup truck would offer a Cummins 5-liter V8 turbocharged diesel engine. Preliminary ratings are torque in the mid-500 lb.-ft. range and more than 300 horsepower with all-important fuel economy and towing capacity announced closer to launch. Cummins also is developing a version of the engine for its commercial vehicle customers.
Year-to-date Titan has sold 10,000 trucks, a 21% decline from 2011. Market leader Ford sold 60,000 F-Series pickups in the month of July alone. Later this fall, Ram will up the ante in the ongoing pickup truck fuel economy game by offering the first light-duty diesel engine pared with an 8-speed automatic transmission, both exclusives in the segment. GM and Ford are caught napping here. Ram claims the diesel will deliver best-in-class fuel efficiency along with the greatest torque. Just bring money – this is going to be a +$40,000 (or more) set of wheels, AutoInformed predicts.
Nissan to increase sales needs not only more engine and transmission combinations, but also it is preparing more cab-and-box configurations to broaden the appeal of the new truck when it comes to market sometime in 2015.
The Titan program has teams in Nissan Americas’ headquarters in Franklin, Tenn., while engineering and testing is performed by Nissan Technical Center North America in Farmington Hills, Michigan and Stanfield, Arizona as well as Nissan’s global engineering center in Japan. Design is led by Nissan Design America in La Jolla, California.
As with the current model, the next-generation Titan will be built at Nissan’s Canton, Mississippi vehicle assembly plant and its gasoline engines cast, forged and assembled at Nissan’s Decherd, Tennessee powertrain plant.
